Can-discharge device



A. R. THOMPSON.

CAN DISCHARGE DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 3, 1920.

1A22,79& I Patenteol July 111, 1922.

WITNESS 4 i. I EN TOR fl/Jpyk wax/ram,

1%? BY MVQQ W (4M2: fAM/Z:

A TTORNE YS UNHTED srares FATENT- @FFHQE.

ALBERT R. THOMPSON, OF SAN" JOSE, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO ANDERSON-BARN- GR/OVER MFG. 00., OF SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, A CORPORATION OF CALIFORNIA.

CAN-DISCHARGE IlJliPVICIlZl.

Application filed April 3,

To all whom it may wager-n.

Be it known that I, Annular R. THOMPSON, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at San Jose, in the county of Santa Clara, and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Can-Discharge Devices, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to devices for discharging cans and other containers from the chambers or vessels through which they are advanced and in which they are treated.

My invention is particularly applicable to machines or apparatus known in the canning art as cookers or coolers and especially to that type of cooker or cooler now well known and which in general comprises a casing or chamber within which .is mounted a rotating reel having around its circumference a series of spaced rails parallel with its axis, and surrounded by an exterior helically directed fixed rail or rails, forming a helical can path or canway through which the cans are advanced by the reel rails. At the end of the canway, or at any intermediate point at which a discharge is provided for, the cans are successively discharged from the v canway to a discharge chute or other delivery device, by which the cans are directed out of the chamber. In some cases the cans roll out from the canway by gravity, and in other cases a more positive discharge is provided, as for example, a switch of some kind, or a fixed finger interposed in the path of the can.

My present invention concerns a positive discharge, and its object is to provide a simple and effective means for ejecting the cans from the canway. To this end my invention consists in the novel can-discharge means which I shall hereinafter fully describe with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. l is an elevation of the discharge end of a cooker or cooler broken away on the line 1-1 of Fig. 2, to show the interior rotatable reel and can-path, and the application thereto of my can-discharge means.'

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the same.

1 is-the box or casing of the cooker or cooler. Within said casing is a rotatable reel 2 having around its circumference a series of spaced rails 3 parallel with its axis,

y and surrounding this reel within the casing is an exteri r helically directed fixed. rail.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July il l, 1922. 1920. Serial No. 379,937.

.positioned peripheral teeth 6 spaced a distance approximately equal to the width of the canway and of a size adapted to project into said canway between the reel rails. The teeth of one member of the double wheel are spaced from those of the other member a distance approximately a little less than the length of the cans. The ejector wheel 6 is mounted in a bearing 7 carried by one of thearms of a fixed end spider frame 8 in the cooker, and its position is such that it engages or intermeshes cogwise with the reel-rails 3.

The operation is as follows: The cans, indicated in Fig. l by 9, lie in the canway between the reel-rails 3, and as a given can reaches the point where the teeth 6 of the ejector wheel begin to penetrate the space between the adjacent reel rails 3, it will be squarely lifted at each end by a pair of such teeth from the said rails. hen as rotation continues, and the ejector wheel teeth project further into the can-way, the can will be lifted higher and so on until it is lifted clear of the reel rails 3, and pushed out of the canway through a suitably disposed opening therein into the chute 5, down which it will roll by gravity to its discharge.

I claim 1. In apparatus of the character specified; a casingpa spiral canway therein; and a rotatable reel arranged axially of the till spiral canway and having a peripheral series 2. In combination, a casing; a spiral canway therein; a rotatable reel arranged axially of the spiral canway and having a peripheral series of spaced rails parallel with its axis; a chute to receive the cans ejected from the canway; a rotatable wheel mounted within the reel above the axis thereof, said wheel havinga double series of peripheral teeth spaced a distance less than the length ofthe cans and projecting through and beyond the periphery of the reel and whereby the wheel is rotated by the movement of the reel, and said teeth lift the cans and eject them from the canway into the chute as the cans pass over the wheel, substantially as described. I

3. In combination; a rotatable reel having a peripheral series of spaced rails parallel with its axis; and a fixed helically disposed rail surrounding said reel and forming with the rails thereof a canway along which the cans are advanced; with a rotatable wheel mounted within the reel and above the axis thereof and having a series of teeth on its periphery adapted to project between adjacent reel rails and intermesh with said rails, whereby the wheel is rotated by the reel; the teeth of said wheel projecting sufficiently between the reel rails from the inside outwardly to lift and eject the cans from the canway clear of the rails, substanstantially as described.

4. In combination a casing, a rotatable reel therein having a peripheral series of spaced rails parallel with its axis; and a fixed helically disposed rail in the casing surrounding said reel and forming with the double series of peripheral teeth, spaced a distance less than the length of the cans and adapted to project between and intermeshv with the reel rails, whereby the wheel is rotated by the movement of the reel and the wheel teeth projecting between the reel rails lift the cans by each end and eject them from the canway .as the cans pass over the wheel, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

ALBERT R. THOMPSON. 

